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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EDVARD A. OLMSTEAD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

RAILWAY-RAIL SPRING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No.-364,432, dated June 7, 1887.

Application filed October 8, 1886. Serial No. $5,726. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD A. OLMSTEAD, of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Railway-Rail Spring, ofwhich the following is. a full, clear, and exact description.

The invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in both the views.

Figure l is a cross-sectional view of a rail as it appears when supported by myimproved form of railway-rail spring, the spring itself being shown in longitudinal section; and Fig. 2 is a plan View of the spring, the positions of the rail and the retaining-spikes being indicated by dotted lines.

In the drawings, 10 represents a metallic plate that is preferably made of steel and shaped to elliptical form, the ends of the plate being bentupward, as shown at 2. The upper and lower faces of the plate 10 are nonconcentric, thus forming a plate that is thicker in the middle than at the ends.

In the plate 10 I form two slots or apertures, 11. These slots are preferably arranged upon distinct parallel lines and so located that the distance between their approaching ends will be slightly less than the width of the base of the rail in connection with which the plate is to be employed, thus providing for the fiattening of the plates.

Plates constructed as described are placed upon the ties or sleepers 20, and the rail is placed upon the plates, as clearly shown in Fig. 1, the parts being held to place by spikes 15, that are driven into the ties 20 through the apertures 11. The plates 10 are located in connection with each tie or in connection with so many of the ties as may be found to be desirable or necessary to properly support the weight of the passing trains.

An inspection of Fig. 1, which represents the plate as it appears when not subjected to the weight of a train, will show that the base of the rail only touches the plate at its center; but as a train passes over the rail the plate will be depressed, and in being so depressed will flatten, thereby presenting a broader bearing-surface for the base of the rail, and consequently the effect of the pressure upon the plate will decrease as the plate expands or flattens.

With railways built in accordance with the terms of my invention, pounding incident to the passage of heavy trains will be materially decreased, and at the same time the noise will be diminished, as will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The combination, with the rail, of abowed springplate having slots in it adjacent to the opposite edges of the rail-flange, and spikes for securing the rail to the ties passed down through the slots with their heads engaging the flange of the rail, thereby serving to hold both the rail and the spring in place, substantially as set forth.

EDWVARD A. OLMSTEAD.

Witnesses:

EDWARD KENT, Jr., G. SEDGwIoK. 

